August 14, 2013 – Frisco, CO

Ride Copper Mountain, Vail Pass

Well, today was an interesting day from the start. First we were all awake very early as we are still on east coast time. Then when Tom got up he had to seek medical treatment in the emergency center from a rowing/biking "hind end" problem ...... As a result he didn't ride with us today. Paul, Bill and I decided to ride from the house and do the ride up Vail Pass on the bike paths. All was good until I got a mile form home and Bill says .." I don't know if I should bring this up but do you need water bottles?" Uugh, yes, I had to ride back to the house to get my water bottles before we started the ride. More adventures to come ...

After I picked up my bottles, we continued on the bike path from Frisco CO towards Copper Mountain Ski Area where we would cut over to the trail over Vail Pass. These bike paths are some of the nicest I have ever seen.

The scenery along this river that we followed was pretty spectacular, but it wasn't the best of the day. That would come as we headed towards Vail.

BTW, the temperature along this path was 39 degrees! Very chilly.

The trail flattened out as we neared Copper Mountain and the little river turned into some rather full ponds. It was very pretty and scenic. Best of all, now that we were in the sun, it started to warm into the 40's. Soon it would be in the 60's and we'd all be over dressed!

You can see the Copper Mountain Ski Area in the distance. This is actually a very large ski area and you can olny see a portion of it here.

When we got ot the ski area, it was difficult to follow the trail, but we were able to find our way with some help!

So here is a great picture of the scenery with the lone rider heading off into the mountains. In this case the lone rider is Bill! I just like this picture so I needed to include it.

 

The section of trail between Cooper Ski Area and Vail is some of the prettiest bike trail I have ever ridden. It's hard to believe you are riding in around over and under Interstate Route 70 through this whole section.

Nice little vid of Paul riding near Vail Pass.

Well at least most of it was pretty, there is a section where the bike path rides just off the edge of the interstate. Kind of distracting at times riding down hill at high speed as large trucks are lumbering up the pass!

There were some very pretty areas including one where you had to do a roller coaster type ride through a dense forest. Pretty cool. Here are some shots of the ponds created by the beavers in the pass.

When Paul and I were returning along this path, we were passed by what we think were two pros, maybe form Team Type I. They were hauling in a pace line.

There were a lot a of animals here too. Paul saw some deer, and pointed out this gopher or prairie dog. He just say there while I took his picture. Pretty amazing.

Then a little later I took the chipmunk you can see below.

While we were riding, Tom took a walk around town and took some great shots of Main Street in Frisco. Looks like an old western town in many ways. Very 1880's if you for get the cars are there!